20 Monday, February 12, 2018 SPORTS Gleirscher claims first Gerard clinches men’s luge gold PyeongChang avid Gleirscher claimed Austria’s first men’s luge gold in 50 yearsD after a mistake by defending champion Felix Loch on the very US’ first gold last run. PyeongChang as the judges Loch led going into the final merican teenager Red awarded round and looked set to match Gerard claimed gold Parrot second fellow German Georg Hackl’s Ain the men’s slope style with place with an record of winning three straight a sensational final run at 86.00 score. luge golds. the Phoenix Snow Park in The youngster also But he dropped out of the PyeongChang. pushed back one of medals to gift American Chris The 17 year-old did not have the event favourites Mazdzer the silver and German the best of starts when he made Mark McMorris, a Johannes Ludwig the bronze. errors on his first two runs but seven-time X Games Team GB pair AJ Rosen and Rupert David Gleirscher he delivered when it counted gold medallist into Staudinger were ranked 22nd and 33rd. most as he produced a flawless third as he could only Loch led after the first two runs on day one in Pyeongchang and the combination of a 1080 spin, a manage to score a run 28-year-old remained in front after run three. 1260 and a backside triple cork worth 85.20. The final round was then going to form until Loch clipped the track to record the winning score of Gerard dropped to his wall, which took enough off his cumulative time for him to finish fifth 87.16. knees in disbelief as he overall and gift Gleirscher gold. Gerard waited nervously as was officially announced “I can’t believe it, it’s just a magic moment,” said Gleirscher. “I just Canada’s Max Parrot delivered as Team USA’s first gold brought down a good run and I am just happy that this happened. an impressive last run but it medallist of PyeongChang “In the first moment I thought Felix is going to be Olympic champion, was only good enough for silver 2018. (Eurosport) and then he made a mistake.” (BBC) Kruger bags Kramer wins third skiathlon gold straight 5,000m gold PyeongChang seconds clear of Sundby, the 2014 PyeongChang orway’s Simen Hegstad Kruger bronze medallist, while OAR utch speed skater Sven Kramer set made a remarkable fightback athlete Denis Spitsov came fourth a new Olympic record to secure a toN win gold in the men’s skiathlon at after also being involved in the hat-trickD of titles in the men’s 5,000m. the Winter Olympics. collision. Kramer, 31, looked comfortable in Kruger, 24, was floored by a The men’s 15km + 15km his heat and went ahead of the pace collision early in the race, leaving skiathlon is a mass start set by Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen with four him last out of 68 and having to cross country event in which laps to go. He maintained his advantage to replace his poles. competitors swap techniques finish in six minutes 9.76 seconds. Yet he took the lead in the midway through the race. Red Gerard (Pic courtesy: rocketnews) Bloemen, a former team-mate of penultimate lap in PyeongChang There is a pit-stop halfway Kramer before switching nationality and raced clear to win in one hour through the race where athletes in 2015, was 1.85 seconds back with 16 minutes 20 seconds. change skis and poles to go from bronze going to Norway’s Sverre Martin Johnsrud Sundby and classic to free technique. Lunde Pedersen. Hans Christer Holund made it The men’s event features Bloemen and Pedersen a Norwegian 1-2-3 while Team eight laps of a 3.75km could only be separated GB’s Andrew Musgrave course and Norway’s by two-hundredths claimed Johannes Hoesflot of a second after seventh Klaebo led at the they fought out Sven Kramer place. change-over, with a tremendous (Pic courtesy: Kruger Kruger 15.2 seconds battle in their Reuters) finished behind in 14th. (BBC) heat. (BBC) eight Moon watches concert with Kim’s sister Seoul highlight of the outh Korean Olympics-driven President Moon rapprochement Jae-inS sat next to between the two the powerful sister halves of the of the North’s peninsula, and they leader Kim Jong flew back home Un at a concert in afterwards. Seoul by musicians Pictures showed from Pyongyang, Yo Jong seated as conservative between Moon protesters burned and the North’s the North’s national ceremonial head flag outside Sunday. of state Kim Yong The show was Nam, who is Simen Hegstad Kruger the final set-piece officially leading the element of the North North’s delegation, Korean delegation’s and applauding at President Moon Jae-in (second from right) talks with Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong- landmark visit, Sunday’s concert. un‘s sister, during a performance by North Korea’s Samjiyon art troupe at the National Theatre of the diplomatic (AFP) Korea in central Seoul on Sunday.